Question of the Day for Tuesday, February 26, 2013

The Christian Church was slow to embrace the crucifix, which has now become an object of universal Catholic devotion. To understand this we must remember that those crucified were robbed of every dignity, including clothes. The early Church would, understandably, be reluctant to depict its Savior in such ignominy. Earliest (conservative) representations of the cross showed what we would recognize as anchors or tridents, but after Constantine became Roman emperor, in 312, the cross as we know it became more common, often accompanied with a symbol of Christ.